Thailand Posts Deflation for Fifth Straight Month in May

The FINANCIAL -- Thailand continued to register deflation in May, when the consumer price index slipped on falling oil, electricity and food prices, according to Nasdaq.

The headline consumer price index dropped 1.27% in May from a year earlier but inched up 0.17% from the preceding month, the Commerce Ministry reported on June 2.

May's headline CPI, which slipped for the fifth consecutive month, was weaker than the median 1.04% year-over-year contraction and the median 0.35% month-over-month increase forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Somkiat Triratpan, director of the Commerce Ministry'sTrade and Strategy Bureau, attributed the continued contraction in consumer prices to weaker retail oil prices, lower electricity charges for the May-August period and falling prices of some food items.

During the first five months of this year, the country's headline inflation fell 0.77% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, increased 0.94% in May from a year earlier and 0.05% from a month earlier, lower than the forecast median 1.0% year-over-year increase and 0.105% month-over-month rise.